Not every thrift store exists to fund its own operations. At 127 Colborne Street in Chatham, Loads of Love runs a secondhand shop stocked with donated clothing, medical supplies, furniture, and household goods, but the proceeds do not stay local in the way a typical thrift shop’s revenue would. Loads of Love describes itself as a Christ centred humanitarian aid and mission society, and the shop channels its sales toward a rotating slate of global projects, with one sponsored mission chosen to receive one hundred percent of the store’s proceeds each month.
That global reach is unusually wide for a small city thrift store. Loads of Love has supported church building and planting, women’s empowerment programs, child support initiatives, and emergency relief container shipments in countries including Ukraine, Zambia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Liberia, and Uganda. Shoppers browsing the racks and shelves in Chatham are, in effect, funding a different corner of that international work every month, a structure that gives an ordinary trip to buy secondhand clothes or furniture a direct line to disaster relief, community development, or church planting on another continent entirely.
The store itself functions like any well stocked community thrift shop day to day. Clothing for adults and children sits alongside furniture pieces, household goods, and a supply of medical equipment that can be harder to find secondhand than clothing or housewares, making Loads of Love a useful stop for anyone in Chatham Kent needing mobility aids or similar items at a lower cost than retail. Donations flow in from the community and get sorted, priced, and put back out for sale, closing a loop between local generosity and the store’s international mission work. Beyond retail, Loads of Love also runs referral services connecting people with additional community support, a reminder that the organization’s work extends past the sales floor.
Regular hours at the Colborne Street location run Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with referral services available Tuesday through Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for anyone who needs to connect with the organization’s broader community support work rather than simply shop. That schedule makes the store accessible across most of the work week while keeping a distinct window carved out for the referral side of the operation, which is a separate function from the retail floor even though both happen from the same address.
Chatham anchors Chatham Kent in southwestern Ontario, a region with a strong tradition of church run and faith based community support, and Loads of Love fits that pattern while distinguishing itself through the sheer geographic scope of where its money ends up. A used coat or a secondhand end table bought on Colborne Street this month might help fund a relief container bound for Liberia the next, or support a women’s empowerment program in Honduras, depending on which mission is currently sponsored. That direct, monthly rotating connection between a local secondhand purchase and a specific overseas project is the clearest way to understand what makes this thrift store different from most others in the region. Loads of Love in Chatham is a Christ centred thrift store where every purchase helps fund a different global mission each month, turning ordinary secondhand shopping into a small act of international support.
